ENQUIRY INTO PLANTS, VI. vi. IO-VIL 2 



foot 1 : wherefore it is fairest along the roads and in 

 well-worn places. 2 It is propagated from the root. 



These are the ways then in which the above plants 

 are grown. All the above-mentioned flowers are 

 grown from seed, as gilliflower carnation spike- 

 lavender wall-flower martagon-lily ; these plants 

 themselves, as well as their roots, are woody. 

 Drop-wort is also grown from seed ; for that too 

 is a plant grown for its flower. These and other 

 plants like them may serve as examples of plants 

 grown for their flowers. 3 



VII. All the others flower and bear seed, though 

 they do not all appear to do so, since in some cases 

 the fruit is not obvious. Indeed in some the flower 

 too is inconspicuous, but, because 4 these grow slowly 

 and with some difficulty, men propagate them rather 

 by off-shoots, as was said at the beginning. How- 

 ever some contend that they have no fruit : and 

 there are men who have actually tried with the 

 following plants 5 ; they have, they say, themselves 

 often dried and rubbed out and sown the apparent 

 fruit of thyme calamint bergamot-miiit and green 

 mint (for even that they have tried) and there was 

 no germination from such sowing. However, the 

 account given above is the truer, and the character 

 of the wild forms testifies to this ; for there is 

 also a wild thyme (Attic thyme 6 ), which they bring 

 from the mountains and plant at Sicyon, or from 

 Hymettus and plant at Athens ; and in other 

 districts the mountains and hills 7 are quite covered 

 with it, for instance in Thrace. There is also a 

 6 ol re . . . tlfflv transposed by Sch. ; in MSS. after 



6 Plin. 19. 172 ; Athen. 15. 28. 



7 \6<(>oi conj. W.; rtiroi Aid. 



45 



